Certainty
by Nostalgic Beauty
Summary: For Harry Potter, the world ended a long time ago. Now he's just waiting for the rest of humanity to catch up. That is, until a certain Oracle calls in a favor. Told in a series of drabbles.
1. The Deal

Couples walked through Central Park in pairs; homeless men and women lounged in the grass, and joggers took advantage of the beautiful day.

A cool breeze tugged at the collar of Harry's overcoat as he leaned back in the park bench, observing the people as they went about their business. Brilliant green eyes lazily traced the patterns of light and shadow on the ground that shifted as the wind ruffled the leaves on the trees. It was beautiful, Harry mused to himself, almost perfect. Then he blinked, and the world washed out into black and green, numbers covering every surface, and whipping through the air as they went about their business. This too, was beautiful in a way. The program for the breeze was especially busy as it flitted around the park, making the trees sway, and tracing over the exposed skin of the people walking by. Harry watched in amusement as the breeze program hesitantly approached him, as if self-conscious, tracing over his face and hands, ruffling his messy hair, and tugging at his collar before moving on.

Harry felt him before he saw him. He could feel the ripples of his presence all around, making him smile slightly. Programs were such gossips. Of course the man was hardly subtle. Shining brilliant gold, he stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the green. As Harry studied the numbers, the man finally spotted him, a slight shift in the number order that was quickly suppressed betrayed for a fraction of a second the man's surprise. Harry blinked again, and the asian features and white business suit of the man strolling in his direction came into focus. It was just too easy to read the code.

He turned back to his people-watching as the man finally reached him, sitting beside him on the bench without saying a word. He didn't have to. For several minutes they sat in silence before Harry broke it.

"So, the old bat didn't tell you who you'd be meeting, huh?"

The man pursed his lips and replied in an accented voice, "No, I was merely told that I would know when I arrived."

Harry laughed, "She's becoming more and more ambiguous in her old age. Maybe she's been spending too much time with the humans."

"Maybe you haven't been spending enough." There was a faint rebuke in the man's tone. Harry grinned, and it was all teeth.

"I spend a ton of time with humans. They're interesting."

The man didn't dignify that with a response, and Harry pouted, looking ridiculous as he did so, "You're no fun, Seraph. So what does the almighty and powerful Oracle want with little, old me?"

Seraph glanced at him in slight surprise, "Don't you know?"

Harry scoffed, "Of course I know! You don't get to be as old as I am without knowing a hell of a lot." Harry's grin was razor sharp, "The question is, does the Oracle have the right incentive."

"You shouldn't need the incentive," Seraph chided.

Harry chuckled, "You don't live as long as I have by doing anything for free, either."

Seraph grimaced before reaching into his pocket and retrieving a data chip, discretely passing it to Harry who slipped it into his own pocket without looking at it.

"We were able to find a programer that perfected an anomaly that you have been interested in," Seraph explained, before shaking his head. "Though what you want with a flying broom I'll never know."

A huge grin burst across Harry's face, his eyes sparkling with suppressed excitement, "There's nothing more fun than flying with a broom!"

Seraph eyed him, "Couldn't you fly anyway?"

Harry flicked his fingers, dismissively, "It's not the same."

"If you say so."

Harry nodded as if that settled everything, "I do! And while I'm at it, I also say that you can consider your little hero part of the Harry Potter life-ensuring program."

Seraph nodded, "That's a relief," though his tone said it was anything but. Then he eyed Harry carefully for his reaction as he said, "Be extra cautious, we have a feeling that this may be the last one."

Harry's hummed noncommittally, keeping his half-smile and fiddling with the data chip in his pocket as he watched a women push a stroller by their bench. Seraph waited a few seconds before sighing, "Cant't you tell us anything?"

Harry glanced at him, "Why not ask the Frenchman? After all, 'Et iz hiz business to know!'" he said in a bad french accent.

Seraph's eye twitched, "Yes, but he's hardly…agreeable."

Harry chuckled, "That's putting it lightly. But anyway, you probably know more about what's coming. I don't put much stock in the future. That's the Oracle's shtick."

Seraph didn't press the issue, he knew he wouldn't get any further on the subject, so he changed it, "Do you know where to find him?"

"I told you, I've had to know these things to live as long as I have."

Seraph eyed him in disbelief, "There's no way you could know. The Agents haven't found him yet."

Harry shook his head mockingly, "Ah, poor, naive Seraph. Just because the Agents are useless doesn't mean that more informed individuals don't know where your little Chosen One is."

Seraph's head whipped around to face Harry full-on in shock, "Then why…?"

Harry scoffed, cutting him off, "Those geezers won't deal with this little hornet until he makes a nest in their bedroom, and even then they'll be slow about it. Why do you think I'm still alive?"

"That's a good question," Seraph muttered, not looking at all reassured.

Harry ignored him, instead watching as the breeze program played with a falling leaf, buffeting it like a cat played with a dangling string, before letting it settle to the ground.

The conversation was obviously over, but Seraph was hesitant to leave. No matter what he said, Harry Potter was a lot more well-informed than even he knew. He had friends everywhere, and this could be his only chance in a while to pick his brain, if only he wasn't so damn evasive!

With a sigh, Seraph gave it up as a lost cause, and made to stand up, only to pause as Harry commented idly, "I'd stick around if I were you. I have it in good authority that the Frenchman is going to take a dive in the lake in the next hour."

Seraph shook his head in disbelief, sitting back down, "Who's authority?"

A smile curled around Harry's mouth, green eyes sparkling mischievously, "Mine."


	2. The One

"So," Harry mused to himself. "This is the One."

The club was typical of this side of the city, dark with red and purple lights flashing over dancing bodies. The base was turned so high that Harry could feel the beat in his lungs, and between the writhing forms, he spotted a man standing apart.

He was young-looking, early twenties perhaps, with dark hair and pale skin, handsome, Harry supposed, with a serious cast to his face. He fit right in, except for the fact that it was obvious he did not want to be there. He stood awkwardly to the side with a glass in hand, as if he were expecting to be stood up for a date. Harry chuckled at the thought.

Harry had been keeping tabs on this man for a long time. Not anything serious, but he made it his business to know where the man was, and his general state of well-being. After all, in the game to come, this man was a key player.

But, as Harry observed a tall, thin woman dressed in black insinuate herself next to his mark, he knew the fun was about to begin. Endings were always interesting.

The thought of revealing himself crossed his mind for a moment, but was discarded just as quickly. As it is, the man would probably think this was all a dream, and there was the added annoyance of his newest guardian angel. Harry eyed the woman, who had finished whispering in the man's ear, and retreated to a distance where she could observe him without being seen. They both watched as the man searched futilely for the woman, before kicking back the rest of his drink and leaving. The women followed, Harry did not. Instead he turned to the bar he had been leaning against, and ordered a whiskey. The man would be safe in the woman's protection for now.

Lifting his vivid green gaze from the counter, he flashed a roguish grin to a woman who had been eyeing him from across the bar. She blushed prettily, before picking up her drink and heading over. In the flashing lights, her bone-straight blonde hair almost looked red.

Trinity and Neo, huh? Their meeting was fairly innocuous for such a legendary couple. Then again, he and his love had met in equally boring circumstances. It just went to show, fate just had no sense of proper drama.


	3. Harry Says Hi

He was in his element. Tank's eyes scanned the code cycling down the screens, a small piece of a dream world he would never see in person. But the code told him enough, he could practically feel Trinity's frustration through the glass.

The phone rang. "Operator."

"They have him."

She didn't need to elaborate; Trinity knew he was watching the situation closely. What they were attempting was dangerous enough, trying to unplug an adult, especially one that had drawn the Agents' eyes. For anyone else it would be suicide, but they were the best, and he wasn't about to let his team down.

"We'll get him back."

Her wry laugh crackled through the headpiece in answer. She knew as well as he did that the odds were slim. Then again, the fact that the Agents took the man alive was a good sign. There were only two reasons why Agents took prisoners, to either interrogate them, or use them to gather information. At best, the guy would be bugged, at worst…

Trinity finished the thought, "They'll kill him if they know who they have, you know that."

Tank kept his skepticism to himself. It wasn't his job to question his captain's beliefs. It was his job to watch his team's backs, and he knew where this was going.

"I'm going after him."

A cheery voice broke over the comm before he could tell her what a bad idea that was.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!"

What the hell? Tank scanned the signal for signs of corruption. There was none. It was as clean a hack as he ever made.

"Sorry to interrupt , I know Morpheus generally keeps a tight ship, but I figured I'd nip the little lady's suicidal tendencies in the bud and introduce myself . Kill two birds with one stone, so to speak."

The voice was jocular and unmistakably male as it casually used names that should have had alarms tripping and tracking programs running throughout the Matrix, but there was nothing, not even a whisper. Either this voice was a better hacker than he had even _heard_ of, or… Tank didn't even know. He had never encountered anything like this, and if the machines knew even half of what this guy seemed to know, they were all dead anyway. "Trinity," he barked out. The tone said everything, stall him.

"Who the hell are you?" Trinity demanded.

The voice still had an amused lilt to it, "Your back-up."

That was unexpected, but Trinity never missed a beat, "We don't have back-up."

"You'll find that you do, that would be _moi_."

Tank finally joined in, "you're not from Zion." He said it like fact, but really, it was the only explanation for his voice being able to reach this channel without Tank's firewall or scans picking up any signs of a hack.

"Nope!" The voice chirped, "And between you and me, what human in Zion would have the balls to go up against Morpheus anyway?"

Commander Lock came to mind, but that was beside the point. He had said "human" as if he wasn't one.

"What are you?"

"Now that is an interesting question! And it has an interesting answer, but unfortunately the answer falls under the category of "need-to-know," and the only thing you need to know is that I'm being well paid by a friendly third party to protect your Boy Wonder." There was a pause, "and I've taken it upon myself to watch your asses too, because I'm bored and, quite frankly, it's fun to screw with people."

Tank didn't know what to say. This was way beyond his position on the command chain, but Trinity seemed to have been struck dumb by either shock or rage. The voice continued before either of them could come up with an appropriate response.

"Anyway, I'll just make this quick before you shut down this line like I know you are oh-so-tempted to do. First, do not go after your Boy Wonder. As of now the Agents have no idea what exactly he is, beyond a person of interest. So, mounting an obviously suicidal operation in some vain attempt at rescue is just asking them to take a closer look. Second, if you won't take my word for it then ask your captain. I'm sure that bastard will stick to his wait-and-see policy in any case. Third, if you ignore my advice, and make my job harder, I will be severely pissed off, and the Agents will be the least of your worries. Fourth, tell Morpheus, 'Harry says hi.' I wish I could see his face when you say that!" The voice cackled in delight for a few seconds before cutting off abruptly, leaving Tank and Trinity alone on the line.

Tank thought Trinity summed up his thoughts very nicely when she broke the silence.

"What…the…hell?"


End file.
